SOUTH BELOIT — From a mental aspect, seeing Elmhurst Immaculate Conception come back to beat the team that ended Oregon’s season last year didn’t do much to help the Hawks heading into Thursday’s 2A South Beloit Sectional final.

“I feel like it was in our heads,” Oregon senior Cydney Long said. “We knew that Dakota was good and saw (Immaculate Conception) play and we thought ‘wow, they’re good, they beat Dakota’ and I think we were ready but we weren’t mentally stable.”

Two nights after needing an improbable come-from-behind effort to beat the previously unbeaten Indians in the semifinals, the Knights (33-6) needed only a pair of sets to oust Oregon, 25-17, 25-17 and capture the 15 sectional title in the program’s history.

“I think one of our goals at the beginning of the season was to get to state and they knew that they had to get past Dakota and that was a huge game for them, but they also knew that they couldn’t have a mental letdown against Oregon,” IC coach Jean Field said. “They had to play and Oregon was going to come out and give them everything that they had so we had to play a good game. We couldn’t take it easy on them by any stretch of the imagination.”

The Hawks (29-10-1) fell behind the Knights for good at nearly the same point in each set. Oregon led 8-6 in the first before a 7-0 run gave the Knights control. The Hawks led 9-7 in the second before being outscored 9-2. They were the only two runs IC needed to put Oregon in a situation it couldn’t afford to be in.

“We excel when we feel have some control, when the score is showing that we’re winning,” Oregon coach Faith Watson said. “Any time the score shows that we’re losing and we’re halfway through the game, the girls kind of have a little bit of a meltdown. Unfortunately this team was way too good to have a meltdown against.”

While Rory Manion who did the most damage for the Knights in the semifinal, it was another senior captain who powered the attack against Oregon. Delane D’Amore pounded a match-high 14 kills, while Manion added nine for IC.

Emy Wright had seven kills to lead the Hawks, who came up short of a sectional title for a second straight year. But first-year coach Watson, an Oregon grad, can relate. She was a part of the last Oregon team to win a sectional in 2006.

Page 2 of 2 - “We were in the same boat that we were,” Watson said. “We made it to sectionals, probably about four years before we finally won a sectional title so I think it just takes a lot of experience. I’m really proud of how we played. They (the Knights) were better than us.”